On 20 May 2022, The Italian Parliament confirmed Law-Decree No. 21/2022 which the Government had enacted in March 2022 to introduce certain significant changes to the Italian rules on foreign investments review (FIR) in response to the invasion of Ukraine by Russia (see our article here). The result is Law No. 51 dated 20 May 2022 (Law 51/2022). By way of background, in the Italian constitutional framework, the issuance of State-wide laws falls within the domain…
On 5 April 2022, the European Commission published new guidance for EU Member States relating to foreign direct investment from Russia and Belarus. The full blog post, “EU Commission publishes Guidance on Foreign Direct Investment from Russia and Belarus” can be found here.
Pursuant to the Foreign Trade and Payments Act (Außenwirtschaftsgesetz – AWG) and the Foreign Trade and Payments Ordinance (Außenwirtschaftsverordnung – AWV), investments into German entities may be subject to the review of the German foreign investment review laws framework. Investments into entities operating in specific, particularly sensitive, business areas, such as for example the operation of critical infrastructure, may be subject to a notification and clearance requirement. The legislative act specifying what qualifies as critical…
On 23 December 2021, the Italian Government extended a significant number of mandatory terms in order to ensure the continuity and efficiency of the administration of the Italian State in the context of the Covid-19 emergency. Among these terms, the Government included also those terms concerning the application of certain emergency provisions connected to the Italian foreign investment review (FIR) regime, also known as “Golden Power”. In particular, by way of Law Decree No. 228…
On 19 October 2021, the EU Commission published its 2022 Work Programme (the “Programme”), which sets out the key goals that the EU Commission hopes to achieve in 2022. Chief amongst these is a desire to make “A Europe Fit for the Digital Age”, with a key proposal to achieve this being a possible “European Chips Act”. In the Programme, the EU Commission has stated that it will publish a proposal for a European Chips…
An amendment to the Austrian Competition Act, which entered into force on 10 September 2021, requires the Austrian Competition Authority to share all merger control filings it receives with the Ministry for Digital and Economic Affairs (BMDW), which is the competent authority for foreign investment review in Austria. This new measure is aimed at strengthening the enforcement of foreign investment review in Austria, by allowing the BMDW to screen merger control filings with regard to potential foreign investment…
On 23 March 2021, the EU opened a public consultation (the “Consultation”) on its plan to introduce a new mechanism to deter and counter potentially coercive actions by non-EU countries which seek to pressure the EU or its member countries into taking or withdrawing particular policy measures, and which impact the economic and geopolitical interests of the EU and its Member States. According to the EU, the new legal instrument will be designed to “empower…
Following the successful launch of our inaugural virtual Annual Compliance Conference in 2020, attracting close to 2,500 in-house senior legal and compliance professionals from across the world, we will return this year in a virtual format to deliver our cutting-edge insights and guidance on key global compliance issues, as businesses and enforcement agencies transition to a new post-pandemic global compliance and investigations landscape. Held across five weeks from 6 September – 8 October 2021, we…
To highlight recent developments in foreign direct investment restrictions in Germany, Baker McKenzie has published a podcast setting out what businesses should be aware of, and what the German regulator will look for. Produced in partnership with Concurrences, our foreign investment experts Samantha Mobley and Anahita Thoms discuss these developments with Angelika Milger, a member of the Investment Screening team at the German Federal Ministry of Economic Affairs. This is the first in a series…
The German Government has further strengthened its FIR regime on 30 April 2021. This amendment is – for now – the last part of a series of three significant amendments, each further strengthening the German FIR regime and adapting it to the EU Framework Screening Regulation. Three modifications are especially notable as they will be highly relevant in practice: Firstly, the amendment drastically extends the scope of transactions that are subject to mandatory notification requirements.…